Raphael General Discussion / Q&A

I've noticed this since SC4. Yun Seong used to stand rigid in sc2, but by sc4 he would hop around slightly in his neutral pose.

Check out raph's standing guard animation he retained from SC2. I much prefered the slight bobbing/weaving he did in sc2 insetad of that weird hunch he acquired in sc4/5
 
Appel (french for "call") is a real stomp. It's supposed to induce a reaction form your opponent so you can counter him.
Unfortunately, it's of limited use in modern fencing : you lose your catlike footwork while doing it and, unless your opponent is super jumpy, they just won't react. Perhaps they will take advantage of your losing your mobility, however.

According to my humble experience, I have yet to see an appel used effectively : in fencing, actions start with the hand, not the foot. So your opponent can stomp as much as he wants, as long as he doesn't extend his arm, it's useless. That's why feints are much more effective. On the other hand, a sudden change of pace in your footwork will most certainly create a reaction.

I do think appel would be more effective in a real fight, where the possibility of death and wounds makes people more nervous.

If you watch épée fencing tournament, you'll see them dance like Raph did in SC2, though with a little more energy. Obviously, they're maneuvering so as to get in position to attack before their opponent. Just your usual zoning.
 
Fendante said:
I assume you mean guard burst right?? B/c a guard break with 66B or 33K BE will not guarantee anything. Well, there's been discussion on what can hit after a guard burst...but Im just doing 6BB BE or CE. Other more moves are theoretically possible but those are slower and it might take too much until your opponent can recover again.
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WuHT said:
not all Guard burst setups allow for the same combo. Refer to this list : http://8wayrun.com/threads/guard-burst-analysis.11270/
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hey thank you and now I apologize with this silly question but what does SE stand for? actually if there's a link to terminology somewhere that'd be just peachy ^^ thanks again
 
FrankVV said:
hey thank you and now I apologize with this silly question but what does SE stand for? actually if there's a link to terminology somewhere that'd be just peachy ^^ thanks again
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It's not the first time this question has come up on the Raph forum. SE stands for Shadow Evade, i.e. when he leans back.
 
understood. I've updated the opening post to assist in any future comprehension problems.

On a related note in training, why does the 2p prep transition not auto-evade any highs i throw as a 1p.? If i myself do a prep entry move and set the 2p to do a block and delayed high, I can easily activate the auto-SE ?

Any explanations as to why ?
 
replying to the other thread


I read namco promised us support...and i also think that testers did an awful job, but a larger playerbase could help more...even on a broke character if a move is useless it should be highlighted.

What s my problem with raph? i won t made the usual list of glithced moves and holes in mixups but i think whereas a move (or even a matchup) is plainly wrong it should be denied or confirmed so namco could know if they'll ever do a patch and not just say use the rest.

I repeat again i can win a lot atm with raphael.....but how many times i use tools i know that oppoenent could have evaded with more experience......one day or another we will face this problem like it was for zasalamel on sc4 (see EVO).
 
Hey everyone. I'm new to the SC universe and I have a question. I'm more of a defensive player when it comes to fighting games. I watched a few videos of Raphael and he seemed like a good fit for me, but I'd like to hear opinions on his general playstyle. To me he looked pretty defensive with his medium-range pokes and he can capitalize on my opponent's mistakes. I could be 100% wrong, that's just the vibe he gave me from the 10 minutes of gameplay I watched.
 
Even if i like to be agressive.
Your vision of Raph is how he should be played.
Staying at medium distance, controling the space, punishing moves from long range.
(236B is awesome for long range punish !)
Yeah, you only want to stay in the face of your opponent when he is back to a wall.
Otherwise, interrupting their attempt to close the distance with you is a good plan.
Raph tools are not for close range.

Did you play another fighting game before ?
Myself, I was playing Balrog/Claw on SF4 before, and i got a familiar feeling when i play Raphaël.
 
JodorowskyVIII said:
Did you play another fighting game before ?
Myself, I was playing Balrog/Claw on SF4 before, and i got a familiar feeling when i play Raphaël.
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Yeah, I play Dhalsim in SF4 and Jin in Blazblue. Another character I was interested in was Leixia but I hear she is more of an aggressive character so I don't think I'd be comfortable playing her.
 
Krusiv said:
Yeah, I play Dhalsim in SF4 and Jin in Blazblue. Another character I was interested in was Leixia but I hear she is more of an aggressive character so I don't think I'd be comfortable playing her.
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Well Ivy would strike me as more of a long range zoner like Sim. Raph is closer to Vega in terms of long range poking and CH game, although nobody is gonna have wall bounce shenanigans like that lol.

But yes Leixia has to be in your face, Raph doesn't. Give him a try.
 
Raph is crazy solid in this game, he's been upgraded to my 2nd main behind Maxi.

Anyway I'm not sure if anyone else posted this, but I've been investigating my options post SE K.
11BB seems to be a must block
11K seems to be a must block. If it hits them on the ground, you get a weird stun adv that makes 66A+B a must block
RCC 1A is a good option as well.
When they tech and try to block low, I mix with 66B for pressure

Post 44B, 33B is almost a must block, will have to verify.

Point is there are good options to lock down the opponent in wakeup, My goal in wakeup is either to hit them low or force them to block 66B. Pretty risky, but his lows are sneaky and fast enough to make them try to block low reflexively in wakeup allow me to get my mix going. 22B and A+BA are others I mix with
 
I do something similar with A+B to get them standing straight up consistently so I can go for grabs/22B/66B/etc, especially near the wall where throws become situations as well.
 
Cool stuff hotnikkelz. But what do you mean by 'good' for 1A? I suppose it could hit a few times, but I generally hate having to deal with what comes after that. If it doesn't win the round, or it isn't sniping some backdash of a passive player, I just... look for something better.

@Huda: True. I reflex hate A+B because of not hitting anything in IV. I'll add that back and see what happens.

66a+B is definitely better for OTG in this game (edit: better than in SCIV, I mean), but it still has issues and failing on you if you think it's 100% reliable for getting that right-roll (ccw roll). It needs to be studied.

Theorycraft time: It's too bad Raph's best neutral low is throw, with the system forcing commitment to 2G wakeup if you want to recover blocking low. That must be contributing to the useability on top of BnB, 66B, and his buffs to 11B and 11K for his oki.
 
KowtowRobinson said:
Well Ivy would strike me as more of a long range zoner like Sim. Raph is closer to Vega in terms of long range poking and CH game, although nobody is gonna have wall bounce shenanigans like that lol.

But yes Leixia has to be in your face, Raph doesn't. Give him a try.
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Been playing Raph for a few days now and I'm really starting to like him. I'm having problems against sidesteppers though. What are my go to moves to punish them? My game mostly consists of 5A/5B, 66B, 22B, 5A+Ba, and a few other moves. Pretty basic stuff, I know, but I'm just a Soul Calibur newbie.

Also: any advice against Algol? I'm not having too much trouble against him but some pointers on the matchup would be nice. My friend uses him and likes to bubble a lot, and while I'm not having problems weaving in and out of them I feel like I'm getting predictable with my approach.
 
Krusiv said:
Being playing Raph for a few days now and I'm really starting to like him. I'm having problems against sidesteppers though. What are my go to moves to punish them? My game mostly consists of 5A/5B, 66B, 22B, 5A+Ba, and a few other moves. Pretty basic stuff, I know, but I'm just a Soul Calibur newbie.
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It's actually better that you start by getting a feel for Raph's basics and then add his more technical stuff later. A few things to add would be to work his other 8wr moves into his rotation Some 22A and 33B will make it much easier to land his excellent 22B. Start block-punishing with 6BB and whiff-punishing with 3(B)~Prep BB. Use his fast 2A up close to stop pressure/movement and use the advantage on hit to open up his offense a little bit. Poke with AB and 4K if you're not already doing so, get a feel for when to use evasive moves such as 6K/1K/44K, and just work on general movement & defense. Learn how to get a life lead and maintain it with defense, movement, and spacing.
 
I haven't been using 4K so I'll check that move out. Honestly I haven't been using the kick button much on Raph, just A and B. What do you mean by block-punishing? Like can I punish them for blocking my stuff or the other way around? (new to some of the Soul Calibur terminology lol) I'll try to whiff-punish more, that's for sure. I've been having a hard time getting into Prep and using it properly.

Oh yeah. Is it just me or is Raph really good at guard breaking? I'm sure some of the stuff I'm doing isn't safe on block but I'm able to break guards fast then follow up with Raph's CE or a 22B combo.
 
Krusiv said:
Been playing Raph for a few days now and I'm really starting to like him. I'm having problems against sidesteppers though. What are my go to moves to punish them? My game mostly consists of 5A/5B, 66B, 22B, 5A+Ba, and a few other moves. Pretty basic stuff, I know, but I'm just a Soul Calibur newbie.

Also: any advice against Algol? I'm not having too much trouble against him but some pointers on the matchup would be nice. My friend uses him and likes to bubble a lot, and while I'm not having problems weaving in and out of them I feel like I'm getting predictable with my approach.
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Hudathan covered it, but don't neglect using your movement to account for step too. Move with/against them to keep your ideal range, and look for them to stop or move forward/backward to land your verts. They can't be moving sideways and forwards at the same time, use this to your advantage.

But yeah 22A is pretty nice at tip range, 33A is a horizontal mid, and he has a number of pokes in close that cover step as well. Just nothing for big step CH damage outside of 22k, is all.
 
3 things i found VERY useful in the WE (i had lot of sessions with lot of skilled friends):

As you know, leixia has a BE (wsBE i suppose) that evade everything i use to call panic button, that leads to huge damage.
Its an absurd move that shouldn t even exist, it GI 2A, evades high and vertical attacks and so on.

Well if you expect that just go for A+B,A it will stop the move while not beeing too risky.

Second thing....
Most people get the habit to 2A after they eat 11K because they know the worse they risk is clash......well remember you have 6K and 4A+B

third:
Well 4 may suck as an aGI but is almost usable as spacing tool.
4 into SE can work lot of times just avoid it against night sieg and such.

Now i still have 2 big problems...:
1) if opponent knows how to handle raph he will be gambling on step, stepG, and crouch simply outdamaging you, knowing that even if you hit him he will eat really few damage....
The thing that really is bad for raph is the damage reduction with yellow bar -.- a really stupid mechanic that cut in half raph's damage.

2) it seems that xiba has a move that will kill any character without an i11 move or able to JG consistently -.- continuosly breaking his guard....well need further investigations.



And finally a question...
It seems SE evades some mids.
Its not due to range could it be a sTC?
 
@fendante its not so wasy, 22A won t work nor 22B, both will have to gamble on attacking at disadvantage...

For Xiba i'll test this evening....if what i saw is correct (but i hope not) you cannot win that strategy without JG.
having guard broken 2 times a round without ANY chance to avoid (360° tracking already tested) it won t win you a match even if you know exactly wich move will arrive.
On the other hand JG completely shut down this strategy as well as an i11 AA.
But i cannot do JG consistently yet :/

I had a great experience in kilik matchup to the point i could interrupt most his strings (asura included) but this time is probably a tricky buffering (i can assure only option is interrupting somehow the string and any i11 AA works) tht makes me lose 1-2 frames...if its not well JG is only option (GI is not spammable so its not, even if it works).
 
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